Time Warner Cable

Whether Comcast and Time Warner Cable will become one in the business world is yet to be seen, but the two appear to already be kindred spirits when it comes to customer service. Comcast was recently in hot water when customers stepped forward showing bills in which their names had been changed to something offensive: in those cases, there was A*****e Brown and Super B***h Bauer, among others. Now a Time Warner Cable subscriber has come forward with a similar story, revealing that her own name was changed.

The Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger has hit another snag, with the Federal Communications Commission reporting that Time Warner had held back over 7,000 documents. The FCC discovered the issue some time this month, with the reason said to have been caused by "an inappropriate claim of attorney-client privilege." After realizing 7,000 or so documents were withheld, the FCC then discovered Time Warner had also experienced a "vendor error" that resulted in failure to provide more than 31,000 documents.

Time Warner Cable has begun bringing internet services back online, after sweeping outages robbed subscribers across the US of their broadband service for several hours. The downtime affected TWC customers in 29 states, and is being blamed on a significant infrastructure issue encountered earlier this morning.

News surfaced earlier this week that Comcast was making a large contribution to a dinner honoring FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, something joined by a similar -- but smaller -- contribution from Time Warner Cable. This drew intense criticism, and now both companies have backtracked on their plans.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable: two companies trying to become one, and not without quite a bit of resistance along the way. A dinner to honor the FCC's Commissioner Mignon Clyburn is coming next month, and as a curious matter, Comcast will be pay $110,000 to be a Presenting Sponsor.

Dish has come out in opposition to the proposed Comcast/Time Warner merger. Speaking to the FCC, the satellite provider says the deal presents “serious competitive concerns” for the industry. They also don’t see how any damage would be mitigated or reversed.

With Comcast’s proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, part of the FCC’s concern is plan pricing. Though a Comcast executive couldn’t tell the FCC prices would go down, he did suggests the price hikes would slow. A recent study by the FCC shows that may be necessary, as cable bill pricing outpaced inflation by four-to-one.

Comcast, who are in discussions to acquire Time Warner Cable, have redefined capped data. David Cohen, an executive with Comcast says he expects they’ll begin offering “usage-based billing”, which translates to “we’ll give you a data allotment and charge you if you go over it”.

Lawmakers questioned Comcast on their proposed Time Warner grab today, asking how the company felt it would benefit consumers. The $45 billion deal, expected to affect some 20 million users, has lawmakers concerned consumers won’t see much benefit. They’re also fearing we could see already high cable bills inflate.

Set-top box upstart Fan TV will be offered to Time Warner Cable subscribers looking for video-on-demand and streaming, with the $99 accessory taking on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Chromecast. Focusing on ease of content discovery, Fan TV mixes live and on-demand content in the same menu, hoping to blur the line between the two in the process.

Following confirmation of Comcast's Time Warner Cable acquisition plans, the Department of Justice initiated an antitrust review to evaluate the business merger -- something several states are reportedly planning to aid. Reuters reports the information comes from unnamed Florida officials, who indicate an unknown number of other states will also be joining the effort.

There’s an addition to the Roku lineup of apps this week, one that brings a wide variety of Showtime-based content to the smart TV system. This update brings the app called Showtime Anytime to Roku, this including TV series like Nurse Jackie and Dexter. This app includes a layout unique to Roku, one that serves up search and recently watched features atop a number of broad categories.